'But this didn't feel like magic. It felt a lot older than that. It felt like music.'

-Terry Pratchett – 'Soul Music'

….

Harry knew something was different from the moment he had woken up that morning, he just couldn't put his finger on what exactly what that was.

….

Harry followed Ron down the stairs in to the common room, he felt as though he was walking in a daze, as though a cloud of mist had shrouded everything around him, his head felt quite fuzzy with an annoying buzz that he just couldn't shake. Ron turned round and caught a glimpse of his friend staring off in to space, 'Harry are you alright mate?' Harry stared at the boy in front of him, it took him a moment for him to realise that Ron was speaking to him; 'Mmm,' he shrugged. Ron threw his arms in the air with an exasperated 'See!' Hermione, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, caught the tail end of the exchange, 'What's going on?' she asked, directing the question at her boyfriend, Ron shot a side-long glance at Harry and stage-whispered, 'he's acting more crazy than usual.' The bushy haired girl swatted at his arm and levelled a concerned gaze at Harry, 'Harry are you ok?' she asked, repeating Ron's earlier question, Harry looked at her blankly, 'Harry?' she asked again, concern lacing her tone. He blinked rapidly and, noting the look of concern on the girls face, smiled, 'I'm fine 'Mione, just a little tired, I obviously didn't sleep very well,' he walked past her in to the common room missing the glance that his two friends exchanged behind his back. Ron shrugged and followed Harry, Hermione rolled her eyes and followed already hearing Ron complaining about being late for breakfast.

…

'Mr Potter, once again, will you kindly desist with the drumming.' Harry slowly looked up from where he had been using his wand to drum a rhythm against his leg, 'Sorry Professor.'

…

'You don't think?'

'I don't know, it could be.'

'I thought it was too late for him.'

'No Ron, it's never too late.'

'So do you think…?'

'I don't know, we need to ask him.'

Ron gave a sharp nod of the head and followed Hermione up to the boy's dormitory.

…

Harry was lying on his back on his bed staring absently at the canopy above his head. His knees were drawn up and he was drumming the same tune, over and over again, on them. He had just started to hum along when the door to the dormitory opened slowly and the heads of his two best friends peered around cautiously; ' Alright, mate?' Ron asked as the rest of his body appeared from around the door, slowly followed by that of Hermione. Harry chuckled at the sight, he sat up to get a better look at his friends; 'What's with you guys? You know you can come in, Ron this is your room for Merlin's sake.' Ron smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, 'I know mate, listen, erm.' Ron cleared his throat, 'So right, well, what it is..' Harry raised an eyebrow, watching with rising amusement as his red-headed friend fought to get his words out. Mentally, he began to count down from ten: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 …

'Oh for goodness sake, really Ronald.'

Harry chuckled to himself as Hermione marched in to the room completely unaware of Harry's bet with himself. She sat gracefully at the end of his bed, leaning against the footboard crossing her legs in front of her. Ron came around to the other side and mirrored her position. Harry raised an eyebrow at them (he was getting quite good at that). Hermione took the lead as Harry had expected her to, 'So we've noticed you've been a bit, shall we say, absent and distracted today and were wondering if you wanted to talk about it,' she exchanged a quick glance with Ron and they looked at Harry in anticipation. Harry looked back at them feeling nothing but confusion, 'guys I have no idea what you are talking about.' Hermione's eyes filled with pity, 'come on Harry you can tell us.'

'There is nothing to tell you,' he shrugged, 'honestly it's been another boring, normal day, in fact it would have been hard to distinguish it from any other if it wasn't for this bloody song…' Harry was cut off by a sharp gasp from Hermione, her hand had flown up to cover her mouth and there was a mysterious gleam in her eye. ' 'Mione?' he questioned, she shook her head, a small smile escaping from behind her hand. Harry looked at Ron in askance and was shocked to discover a matching gleam in Ron's eyes and a big, stupid grin on his face. Harry's brow furrowed, he opened his mouth to question his friends when Ron finally found his voice, 'What's the song mate?' Harry groaned and leaned back against his headboard as the loud rock beat bounced around his head once more. He brought his hands up to cover his face and dragged them down in exasperation. 'It's been in my head from the moment I woke up this morning and it's never left. It's so frustrating. I just want to sing it but I can't, it's like the words just don't want to come out, it gets to a certain point in my head then starts again. It just cuts off, it's so bloody frustrating, ugh, it's a great tune as well, but it's like I'm only getting half a song. Do you know what I mean?' Harry looked up at the question and was not prepared for what he saw. Hermione was grinning, tears pouring down her face, her eyes shone with happiness and her hands were clasped to her chest. One look at Ron showed he was not far behind, before Harry could say another word for himself he suddenly found himself with his arms full of Hermione, 'Oh Harry, I'm so happy for you.'

Harry had never been so confused in his life and, considering the life he had led, that took some doing. The confusion was only heightened when Ron stood and gave him a manly slap on the back, 'Mate I'm made up.'

Harry blinked, 'Erm does someone want to tell me what on earth is going on?' Hermione sat up and wiped her eyes with the back of one of her hands . 'Oh Harry, it's amazing, you've found your song, I thought you'd missed it, but you've not, you've found it,' Harry's eyebrows rose at Hermione's unusual ramblings, 'Mione I love you but you need to explain to me what exactly it is you are going on about?' In the blink of an eye, as though a switch had been flicked, Hermione was back to her usual studious mode. 'Oh, I'm so sorry Harry , I totally forgot you'd have no idea, it's not something people ever talk about really, it can be a touchy subject, it's not considered polite really in case someone was missed, obviously being brought up by Muggles didn't help the matter.' Whilst Hermione had been talking she had been rummaging around in her ever present school bag, ' Here,' she said removing one of the oldest and dustiest books Harry had ever seen and, being best friends with Hermione meant that he had seen more than his fair share of old, dusty books. Hermione flicked through the pages until she found what she was looking for, 'Here,' she repeated, passing him the tome, 'read this.' She tapped her finger on the page, pointing out the relevant passage. Harry looked at Ron who simply nodded, so Harry read:

Soul Song.

It is widely known that a soul can sing. Every soul is full of music. The music changes many times throughout life, a sad soul sings a sad song and the song is joyous when the soul is happy.

Soul music is beautiful but we are not given the ability to hear it, it can be seen when one looks deep in to our eyes but never heard by anyone. However there is always an exception to every rule; as a wizard or witch reaches their 16thbirthday their soul gains a new song, the one song that will be heard. They will be able to hear it for the first time but they will not be the only one, this song is unique, one other can hear it as it is their song too. Each person will hear half of the song, the song will bring you together and it will become whole. Your soul itself will become whole.

You will have met your soul mate.